In the cold and wet, Landsman has plenty of chores in the vineyard (but a bottle waits in front of the fire)

My feet are frozen and my nose eternally red. It is cold here – very cold.

Fantastic. Now we know we might have some good uniform budding this spring. The colder the early winter months the better budding. Uniform budding is essential, especially with red grapes, because that means even maturity. Otherwise you have some grapes half ripe and others over ripe in one block. Even maturity produces a good wine (if the winemaker is awake, of course).

And I have not seen so much rain in many years. All the waterfalls are flowing from our mountain and the dams are filling up nicely.

Everybody on the farm is getting excited about pruning. Shears are being sharpened and youngsters trained. I do not believe in borselkop [brushtop] pruning (where two thirds of the canopy is cut off early winter) or pruning the unwanted canes away and leaving the rest to be cut back just before budding. I do it all in one go. It means more people pruning in a shorter space of time but it also means the vine buds more uniformly.

Immediately after pruning the pruning wound has to be treated against infection of dead arm disease (eutypa) which is windblown spores that spreads slowly and kills spurs and canes. I will tell you more about this once we start pruning seriously.

We try to do all extra work before the end of June on the farm. After the rain we check for erosion, burn vines that were taken out and clean up the workshop area. I love the smell and heat from standing next to a vine fire in the rain.

Old implements are resprayed and spray machines serviced. Almost everybody on the farm gets some kind of training and the rainclothes and boots are fitted and handed out. Waterfurrows are checked and many a farmer wished he had the money for a 4x4 vehicle on his farm.

My biggest mindblower at this time of the year is updating and finalising the replant programs after discussing the quality of the wines with the winemakers.

So many factors have to be taken into account. The style of wine aimed for, the price point of it, possible blending agents, the slope and aspect that is available for planting, which rootstock (vigour or not and drought resistant or not) and which clone, what row direction etc etc.

If all these factors are carefully considered and the vines are planted well on soil that is correctly prepared, half your work as a vineyard manager is done. Then the vine will be in balance and a good quality grapes will be produced almost for certain. If not, you will forever tip and top, reduce the yield or rip between the rows, over or under fertilize and generally fight with the vine.